Goodbye 2009

I don't often write blog posts in response to another blog posts.  And the number of blogs I do read can probably be counted on one hand.  However a recent posting I read got me to thinking and I realized that I probably had enough thoughts & comments about this to warrant a blog posting of my own rather than just posting a few lines in response under the original.

As the author of the previously mentioned posting points out, it's been a rough economic year for everyone.  This has brought some unique challenges and obstacles in my workplace that have probably culminated into a large scary monster of negative feelings & emotions within me that all too often carries over into my personal & family life.  Since my office closed back in May, not only do I not get face time with my co-workers & manager who are going through the same career difficulties (absence of a regular quasi-support group), but I also don't have the commute time between work & home that would be roughly an hour or so to unwind and transition from work to family mode.

One of the quotes from the posting I wanted to comment on was this:
"We didn’t send out Christmas cards this year. We handed out few gifts to neighbors. We didn’t hang lights around our home. We didn’t give as much service as we had planned. Home and auto repairs seemed to drop out of nowhere. Our three oldest kids needed glasses and dental work done.
Nothing major. Just many small expenditures that add up over time during a year when my bonus was slashed."

That's kind of how it was around our house too.  Normally I put up our 12ft tall Christmas tree with a 9ft diameter base in our front room with vaulted ceiling.  This year, I only put up the top half.  It still looked great at 6ft tall with the pre-lit white lights and the decorations my wife & kids put on but it felt like a representation of my Christmas spirit this year like it too was only half there.  Our exterior Christmas lights were never put up, and the smaller tree helped hide the fact that there were a smaller number of presents under the tree this year.

As there were no bonuses or raises handed out this year, what we were able to put under the tree basically came from the income my wife was able to provide with the 5 hours a week she works, commission only, for a small non-profit organization.  While I was thankful for that, at the same time I was left frustrated that I couldn't provide for my family like I wanted to...Like I felt like it was my obligation and responsibility to and regardless of how hard I worked through the challenges of layoffs, furlough time, increased issues of customer escalations and unhappy customers and still raising our customer satisfaction scores, there was no monetary thanks from the company.  (Though they still had funds to acquire a portion of Nortel business solutions.)  So we delay the dental work my wife & I need, see how long we can drive with that annoying blinking light on the dashboard of the car (we had it checked, it's minor & ok), and reschedule some of the plans we had slated for this year.

But after reading the blog post further, it made me reflect back on the year and remember some of the more positive highlights and that it's important to have and show gratitude for some of the more simple pleasures like time spent with family.  I was able to take my family to Disneyland this year for a week.  That was awesome.  I spent a few days at the beach 4 times this year, twice in Seaside, OR and twice in Long Beach, WA.  I made new friends working a temp job first at an event in Seattle and then later in the year at another event in Atlanta.  While it was hot in Atlanta, I enjoyed the rare opportunity to visit there and work with such  a great team of people.  This year we also got an addition to the people in our home in the form of a college exchange student from Hong Kong and she has helped us learn and try new things that we probably otherwise would not have done.  And possibly a blessing I keep overlooking is that while there have been stressful challenges at work, I am thankful I have the opportunity to tackle those challenges rather than the unemployment line and job hunting market.

These are only a few of the things that are unique to me this year that I have to be thankful for.  While I'm glad that 2009 brought these wonderful experiences, I hope that 2010 brings better economic times for everyone.  But until then, I hope I can continue to remember what's truly important and show gratitude for what I do have instead of misery & negative attitude I've been giving off for the focus I've been placing on all the things that just don't go right.

My Hardest Job

I recently participated in a gospel discussion with missionaries from my church who were teaching a friend who is investigating the church and preparing to be baptized.

After the missionaries left we continued talking and since my 3 brothers and I each served on missions, the talk turned to what the life of a missionary is like. I commented that I probably got more sleep then because they're in bed from around 9pm to 6am whereas now I get to bed around the same time but I get up for work around 4am.

My Mom commented that being a missionary has got to be the most difficult job. I started thinking about the various responsibilities I've had during my life and decided that while I know my Mom was referring to a profession, being a full time Dad has definately been the the most challenging and demanding job of my life.

It makes me appreciate the help and support my wife has been in this monumentous task and awesome responsibility we have been blessed with.

When my Wife was recently out of town for a week, I gained a greater appreciation for all this when I worked half days from home then played Mr, Mom sarting at 8am. However the first day was Sunday and that afternoon after church we were to be hosting my sister in-law's son's birthday celebration. Well I woke at 5am with the 8 yr. old sick in the bathroom. I took care of her and we both went back to bed. So of course we couldn't go to church so we overslept and I missed the opportunity to inform my sister in-law about my sick child since they were already at church.

So around 10am or so my 6yr. old got sick but she did so leaving a trail from her bed to the bathroom that I had to clean up. Well I finished that task about 10 minutes before guests were to arrive at which time I was informed that my 6 yr. old made another deposit on the hardwood dining room floor downstairs. I was just finishing cleaning up that mess whe people started to arrive.

So. 2 of my 3 kids were confined to their room while guests were downstairs and I was glad that my 3 yr.old had not gotten sick too. I had just sat down with my plate of food and my 3 yr. old came to sit on my lap. I figured she would eat off my plate. Instead she added to my plate the contents of her stomach. So not only did I have 3 sick kids, another mess to clean up, and no wife to help, but I got my food last so the food was gone except for a few morsels left on the veggie tray.

So yes, fatherhood is the hardest job I'll ever have but it gives rewards that I could never get any other way and I wouldn't trade it for anything.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

The price of technology

I realized some time ago that, despite my efforts, I'm not going to be able to stay current or up to date on all the technology advancements as I'd like to.  I'm not going to be able to interact with new hardware that comes out for a variety of reasons.  Some of the reasons are personal choices such as wanting to try to have a balance between attention given to "toys" and time spent with family, volunteering, etc.  Or the personal choice regarding what line of work I'm in which has an impact on not only what technology I get to work with through my job but also how much I'm paid to do so.  Sure, some people have jobs where they're paid to play with new stuff and then write a review on it or something but that's not the line of work I'm in currently (though that would be kind of cool) and I'm not certain I have the refined writing skills that someone would pay me for.

Which brings me to my main point which is that even if I did have time to interact with the technology that I'm interested in, I just don't have funds required to do so.  And when I talk about technology, I'm not just talking about computers (though I've been wanting a Mac for some time now to replace my 4yr old Dell), other technology interests I have are related to multimedia as well.  I'd love to be able to play with video editing which would also include some audio editing to add tracks to the video, record HD video onto flash media, photography related technology (I could use a SpeedLite flash for example), mobile technology such as Netbooks or smart phones, etc.

My current video camera is several years old and records to miniDV tapes and has a firewire port for transferring video to a computer.  My Dell doesn't have a firewire port, my old computer that was given to the kids does and it currently doesn't work.  Even firewire has become a slow technology compared to some other current options and it seems to be just about on its way out the door.  I mean in order to transfer the video, I still have to play every minute of what I recorded because it's still a tape media and I can't just copy a digital file to a disk.

The Mac is probably the first and main big obstacle.  I mean I don't want to shoot video anymore until I have a decent system for editing the video.  I've refrained from doing too much with photo editing because my Dell only has 2gb of ram and has a 4gb limit.  Sure I could put an inexpensive firewire card in there or upgrade the memory, but at this point it's like an old car to me and I just don't want to invest anymore money in it.  Sure it works fine for what I use it for now (mostly internet stuff like e-mail & online social networking, etc).  But I can't even play games on it anymore because the games today require technology that my current video card doesn't support and things like that.  (I know, what a hardship I have that I'm not able to play video games on my computer. I guess that's why we have the Wii.)

(Warning: Abrupt segue to follow)  Recently Verizon released the Droid phone which runs Google technologies natively.  I'm a fan of Google because so much consumer product is free and it works as well, if not better than some consumer products that aren't free and since it's mainly developed to store / access all your data online, you can get to it from any internet enabled device that supports web pages.  I got the Verizon LG Voyager phone when it first came out and in my opinion, until the Droid, there hasn't been a compelling reason for me to consider getting a different phone with Verizon.  While the iPhone is indeed very nifty, fun to play with, and probably even very convenient, I can't bring myself to switch to a carrier that has worse coverage and customer support than what I've been having for the last 10+ years (rated highest by Consumer Reports surveys year after year too).

As I looked into the Droid phone more, I found that even with my "new every two" discount, the phone would still be $150, I'd be locked in to another 2 year agreement (hasn't really been an issue anyway), AND I'd have to get a mandatory data plan that would tack on another $30/mo. to my already outrageous cell bill which is only a 2 phone family share plan at 700 min./mo (and I added the $5 text messaging plan to my phone mostly for SMS data).  I didn't really like the idea of investing more money in something that was going to increase my monthly bills and since I started working from home full time back in April, I'm finding that I don't even use my cell phone as much as I used to anyway.  I figure I'm probably home 85% of my time anyway so I wouldn't even use the mobile features enough to make it worth it.  The maps feature looked really cool but for the number of times I go somewhere where I'd need a map, I can usually get my directions before I leave home and even then if I get lost or the route changes because of traffic or road closures, etc, I can still activate my VZ Navigator for $3 for 24 hours or $10/mo.  Even with the price of GPS devices coming down, I'd have to use the VZ Navigator for a full year to come close to the average low end price of what GPS devices are selling for.  Plus my phone is typically always with me and I wouldn't have to carry another device.

Therefore I decided that as cool as the Droid is, and as much fun as it would be to have a GPS (which, unlike the Droid, typically doesn't have a monthly cost associated with it), given the amount of time I'm actually away from home, it probably wouldn't be a good investment.  After sharing some of these thoughts with my Dad & brother who have similar tastes in technology as I do, my brother gave me the idea of the iPod Touch.  It gives you just about all the features of an iPhone (without the actual phone features of course) and you only have to pay for the device once without a monthly bill.  Given that I can use it with my (or any free wi-fi), I can still be away from the computer but still be at least somewhat connected to the technologies.

As I looked into the options for the iTouch, I found there's currently an 8gb which hasn't changed along with the newer 32 & 64gb 3GS models that apparently run about twice as fast.  Anyway, since the 8gb model is being sold concurrently with the "3rd Generation" 32 & 64gb models, there were some who thought the 8gb model was also a 3rd gen.  When I chatted online with the helpful Apple sales rep, they basically confirmed there's no difference except for a $5 software version upgrade.  Armed with that knowledge I found that Amazon had two prices listed for the 8gb model.  One was sold as a 2nd gen. product & the other a 3rd gen. with a $40 price difference between them.  I opted of course for the 2nd gen. model then added the $5 upgrade.

So I can't afford the Mac yet, but the iTouch makes me feel like I kind of got a little closer and I don't have to  walk away empty as it were or settle for something that both has an increased monthly fee and that'd only benefit from during that short time that I'm NOT at home.  And a good portion of that time is while I'm at church which may not be the best place for me to be playing with my cell phone.  However I've already downloaded scriptures and hymn book to the iTouch so it's already a winner.

(I recognize this posting was very materialistic in nature.  Having said that, just know that I'm dealing with it and would like to promote that I am a fan of keeping a balanced life which includes having a focus on putting the family and people in general ahead of some screen to stare at or some other toy to play with.  Perhaps that's something for another post. This one is already long enough as it is.  I can't even keep the disclaimer note at the bottom short.)

Love / Hate relationship

Perhaps love & hate are too strong of words but I have this relationship with this blog that kind of feels that way but maybe to a lesser degree.  I like writing a blog but I get so wrapped up in the rest of life that this year it has fallen sadly by the wayside and put on the back burner taking a backseat to other things like the volunteer work I've been doing for the city of Auburn.  Well, both my wife Mandy & I have but her more I think.

Just last month, Mandy took advantage of some training that the city paid for to fly her to Baltimore, MD to get some hands on training with FEMA in a class labeled "E900 - IEMC: All Hazards Preparation and Response".  So she was gone for a week and I worked half days and played Mr. Mom.  The Hazard they did drills for, their practice scenarios, revolved around a fictitious city getting flooded due to an issue with a dam up river.  How much more closer to home can you get?  If you're reading this and aren't local to western Washington or the Seattle area, the Green River Valley (Auburn, Kent, Renton, Tukwila) is preparing to face this exact scenario.  Get the details here and even more details and resources can be found on the City of Auburn website.

Mandy has also been volunteering in the Emergency Management office (which I've done once so far), and has helped do other things like fold blankets and organize their moulage kits for CERT drills.  Lately I've been helping to manage the city sand bagging site Tuesday & Thursday afternoons & Saturdays from 10am-2pm.  Mandy & I are also authorized to drive city vehicles so that also helps in events like this where I can pick up a truck with supplies or whatever.

So in addition to those volunteer efforts, I also am trying to work on creating a web site for the Auburn Emergency Communications Team of which I'm a part of as well providing ham radio communications.  So I'm learning a few new technologies as part of that project trying to figure out which tools to use and what-not.  I want there to be a public calendar, a forums section, news, training, contacts, etc.  I may be biting off more than I can chew with this project alone but it can be done in phases.  I'm still in the planning stage in figuring out layout of the site and look & feel of the pages.

I've also been trying to learn some photography ever since I took my first step into the DSLR world when I got a Canon Xsi almost a year ago.  Once I can get an appreciation and understanding of how to use the camera and its features, I want to take the next step and learn digital photo editing.

And at some point down the road, I also want to learn more about database management.  With the software available today, you don't have to learn with training wheels like Microsoft Access anymore nor do you have to shell out big bucks to run Microsoft SQL Server either.  There's free software like MySQL and there's even a free version of Oracle for download.

So much I want to learn and so little time, or at least lots of time and poor self-management of it.  Because after a day of work, then volunteering or taking care of my 3 kids, there comes a time when I want to just quit using my brain as much and sit down to enjoy some time on the drums with Rock Band on the Wii.  Yeah, I should just probably focus on one hobby or special interest at a time but then again, sometimes it nice to diversify.  I mean I'm still learning some of this ham radio stuff.  In fact I have a D-Star conference I'm going to in 2 weeks so I can learn more about that technology.  I mean I just recently accepted invites for Google Wave & Google Voice so I'm going to try to learn those too.  They look fun and they're free and all about communications which is really what all of this is about.  Communicating via blogs, twitter, facebook, photography, radio, internet, e-mail, and even using databases to store and retrieve information to communicate with someone some data.

So with all that, my enjoyment for keeping my blog updated has turned into a small amount of self-dissapointment that I seem to only update this maybe once a month lately, if that.  But then again, there's always my Twitter updates which also get posted to Facebook so if you follow me there, you get more current info.  If you only follow me here, you may be missing out on some really important stuff.

Some Great Deals (most under $10)

My wife says I don't need any more toys and I need to quit spending money all the time...Oh yeah?  Then how do you explain all this stuff?

    

Shop4Tech.com offers the 32-Piece Mini Screwdriver Set for $9.99 with free shipping. Coupon code "CD15" cuts it to $8.49. That's $2 under our July mention and the lowest total price we've seen for such a set. It features a 4-1/2" screwdriver, 4-1/2" extension, three bit holders, and slotted, Phillips, Torx, Hex, and PZ bits.

 

n-store only, Home Depot offers the Brinkmann 6-LED Flashlight 10-Packbundled with 30 AAA Batteries for $9.97. (To find it, click "Weekly Ad" in top-right corner, enter your ZIP code, click on this week's ad, and search for "Brinkmann".) That's $50 less than the best price we could find for a similar flashlight in this quantity; and that's without the batteries. Sales tax is added where applicable. Deal ends October 14.

 

Amazon.com offers the DeWalt Heavy Duty 50-Piece MAC Container Accessory Set, model no. DW2582, for $21.36. Pad your order over $25 to qualify for free shipping; otherwise, shipping costs $7.47. Even with shipping, it's a $13 drop and the lowest total price we could find. This set includes bits to fit most sockets, a rapid load holder, and magnetic tray.

 

Cabela's Women's Early-Season Nylon Parka for $10 + $6 s&h

Cabela's offers its Cabela's Women's Early-Season Nylon Parka in six colors for$9.88. Shipping adds $5.95, or opt for free in-store pickup. Even with shipping, that's $20 off list and ties our mention from a week ago as the lowest total price we could find. Sales tax is added where applicable. This jacket includes a fleece lining and comes in sizes L to XXL, although not all size/color combinations are available.   Meritline.com offers the LED Credit Card Pocket Light for $4.99. Apply coupon code "MLC400440101050A" to trim it to $1.99. With free shipping, that's tied with our mention from a month ago as the lowest total price we've seen for such an item. This credit card-sized LED light folds down flat and can be stored inside a wallet. Deal ends after 200 coupon redemptions.     7-Port USB 2.0 "Squid" Hub w/ built-in cables for $8 + free shipping Shop4Tech.com offers this 7-Port "Squid" USB 2.0 Hub in Black for $9.99. Add coupon code "CD15" to your cart to cut it to $8.49. With free shipping, that's the lowest total price we've seen for a 7-port "squid" (or "octopus") hub since August when it was $1 less.

Dialogue with my 8 yr. old daugter

Ok, so first an acknoledgement that I never finished posting a detailed log of our Disneyland trip AND that it's been about 4 months since my last post. I think I've already gotten over it and somehow I'll find a way to live with myself and move on. I hope you can too.

Anyway, this posting is a result of a conversation I had with Jennifer, my 8 yr. old daughter this week and since it's a little too long for a Twitter or Facebook posting, I thought that I should share it here.

Me: Jennifer, What do you want for dinner?

Jennifer: I don't know.

Me: So you want some "I don't know" for dinner? Ok, I'll open the pantry and pull out some "I don't know" for you for dinner. Do you want ketchup with that?

Jennifer: No.

Me: Do you want your "I don't know" with Salt?

Jennifer: No

Me: Would you like it with peanut butter?

Jennifer: No...But I would like it warmed up.

When did my daughter start being such a smart alec?

Disneyland Day 2

We spent the morning together in Disneyland and then took the kids back to the room in the afternoon to spend time at the resort pool & with their cousin Dawson.  Mandy's sister Jessica flew in today and in exchange for staying with us it was agreed that since she wasn't going in to the park until the next day, she would watch the kids while Mandy & I did a few things in the park ourselves that would be better to do without kids.  

We got to the gates before the park opened so that when we were let in we could go straight to Tomorrowland and be among the first in line for the Finding Nemo submarines.  I think we were the first ones on that submarine that morning.  There was only room for 2 people to get on after I did, the seats were still cold.  I didn't take pictures of the part of the ride that included animated sequences of Nemo & friends because it was so dark & on most of the dark parts of rides I didn't want to use the flash because it kind of detracts from the ride for everyone.  

We got off Nemo & the plan was to get a fastpass for Autopia but the sign said the wait was 5-10 minutes so we just got in line.  Apparently the engines were still cold because we noticed them having some trouble starting the engines and the wait was more like 20 minutes or so.   It was still fun and I let Jennifer sit in the drivers seat while I helped with the gas pedal for her.  I took a few pics trying to reduce the awkwardness of how close up a shot it was.  However, she "drove" as awkwardly as expected but still had loads of fun.

After we got a fastpass for Space Mountain, we did the Buzz Lightyear ride where 2 riders sit in a pod and get control of a "laser gun" to shoot "Z" targets.  The unique thing about this is that since there were targets in every direction, there was a center joystick that let you control the direction you faced.  Mandy let Anna control that and somehow she scored higher than I did.  

There are several attractions where Anna and sometimes Sara are too short to go on the ride.  There were only a small few that Jennifer was too short for.  Star Tours was one that Mandy & I had to split up to go on with a "switch rider" pass.  Jennifer & I went on Star Tours first then Mandy could go on with Sara if she was tall enough or Jennifer again if she wasn't.  Sometimes Mandy would go first on these types of attractions.  Last time I was at Disneyland, Star Tours was relatively new.  And where they did the 3-D attraction "Honey We Shrunk the Audience" was the relatively new and somewhat popular 3-D "Captain E.O." that was a Sci-Fi type short film staring Michael Jackson.

I went on Space Mountain with Jennifer and there was born the worlds newest roller coaster freak.  I think from that point on, Jennifer loved roller coasters and every other fast ride the park had to offer.  98% of the ride is in almost total darkness.  We sat in the very back so it was even harder to see what was coming, we might as well have been blindfolded.  I think this is probably the scariest ride.  Jennifer was super excited when the ride was done and anxious to do it again.  It was all I could do to hide from her that I was about ready to pass out and throw up, not exactly in that order.

Jennifer was super excited and looking forward to the Jedi Training Academy because she learned that they take kids from the crowd and teach them how to be a Jedi which she was very interested in because Uncle Chris claimed to be a ninja and admited that a Jedi could beat a ninja.  She really wanted to beat Uncle Chris as a Jedi because if she can beat Darth Vader, she knew Uncle Chris was afraid of Darth Vader.  We got to the appropriate location for this event early and she was among the first of about 30 kids to be chosen from the audience.  She was given a padawan jedi robe and was issued a "training lightsaber" to learn the basic moves of a jedi in the ways of the lightsaber.  When some basic training was complete, a couple storm troopers paid the a visit apparently paving the way for Darth Vader.  The Sith Darth Maul followed in after Darth Vader looking all menacing with his double edged light saber, horns on his head, and those yellow eyes.  The Jedi Masters were confident of their new padawans and sent them up against these villans.  Jennifer had on her birthday button she acquired the day before and while all the kids "fought" either Darth Maul or Darth Vader, she was the only one who got to fight both of them.  The Jedi trainer joked that it was her big smile that confused Darth Vader and allowed her to "defeat" him in battle.  After it was over, she got a certificate as a rememberance of the event.  We all had a great time but especially Jennifer.

We spent a little time at Innoventions checking out what was basically "Microsoft Home" with most of the technologies powered with HP hardware and Microsoft Software.  One of the neatest thing is still the Microsoft Surface.  I'd seen it in video before but it was fun to play with it first hand finally.  I probably spent too much time downstairs because we only had maybe 20 minutes or so upstairs before we had to go.  Not enough time to catch the Asimo show.  There was a person on a Segway.  First time I'd seen one that close before.  Most of the rest of the top floor was a collection of video games brought to you from Xbox 360 & Playstation (mostly Xbox).  Mandy & I returned later that evening to take a closer look upstairs when we had more time and were kid free.

We had to get over to the Plaza Inn on Main Street for Jennifer's Birthday celebration with Mickey, Minnie & Pat E. Cake where we each got hats, cups with lemonade, & cakes to decorate.  Then each kid got to get their picture taken with Mickey & Minnie.

We dropped the kids back off at the resort with their Aunt Jessica who immediately took them down to the pool.  When Mandy & I got back to the resort, she took two of our 4 park hopper tickets & got fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain and I took the other two and got fastpasses for the Indana Jones ride.  We met for dinner at the Blue Bayou having made "priority seating" reservations the week before.  This place is inside the Pirates of the Caribean ride and shares a kitchen with Club 33.  The back wall of this restaraunt displays the first part of the ride where riders are going through a backwoods bayou replica.  Food was great.  I had a nice medium well prepared steak with potatoes.

We immediately got in line for Pirates of the Caribean & the line moved quick.  Then we went on The Haunted Mansion next.  Both are always a classic though Pirates was redone after the movies.  Mandy & I used our fastpass tickets to walk right on to Big Thunder Mountain and got to sit right up front.  It was great.  We were able to time it just right to walk right on to the Mark Twain riverboat to take a trip around Tom Sawyers Island on the "Rivers of America".  Without kids we were able to get things done at a faster pace & made our way to the Indiana Jones ride between the Jungle Cruise & Tarzans Treehouse, formerly home of Swiss Family Robinson and apparently not changed much physically but for the addition of some props, statues, & signs.  

We were able to get right on Indiana Jones right and went straight to the front of the line with only about a 10 minute wait.  A couple points during the path there are signs that say do not touch, pull, press, etc some object like a rope or a lever.  I wanted to but Mandy raced ahead.  Luckily, the guy behind me took the opportunity to trigger the event such as spikes popping out or whatever.  This is the guy who does the opposite of what any sign says NOT to do.  During the preshow, a video says not to look into the eyes of the statue.  I looked at this guy and said, "You're going to look into the eyes aren't you?"  Of course he did but if he didn't, I sure was going to.